iPads on the way for education overhaul

School districts are going on computer buying sprees as they ramp up for the introduction of the Common Core curriculum in fall 2014 and the state's new online tests in 2015.

Most of the attention has focused on Los Angeles Unified and its jaw-dropping plan to purchase upwards of 660,000 iPads so that every K-12 student and teacher will have a state-of-the-art tablet computer. The project pencils out at roughly $450 million, with the money coming from voter-approved bonds to fund school improvements.

But smaller districts are also ordering tablets, along with laptops and desktop models, thanks to a welcome infusion of $1.25 billion from the state to help implement Common Core. Districts will have two years to spend the money -- officials estimate they'll get nearly $170 per student -- on materials, training or technology.

And the technology acquired for Common Core can also be used for the state's new standardized tests, which will be administered online and will rely on in-depth rather than multiple-choice questions.

Ontario-Montclair Elementary is buying more computers this summer, with the goal of having one device for every four youngsters in the 23,000-student district. Bonita Unified, a 9,900-student district headquartered in San Dimas, is purchasing 80 additional computers for each of its dozen campuses.

Long Beach Unified plans to use its $15 million allocation from the state to add about 60 computer labs to the 50 it already has, buying enough devices so that students will be able to use them for classroom lessons as well as test taking. In addition, kids at one Long Beach high school and three middle schools will have tablet computers as the 81,000-student district experiments with various platforms to see what works best.

"We've been given a gift, and we owe it to the taxpayers to spend it efficiently and effectively," Long Beach Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser said.

Baldwin Park Unified has at least one computer lab at every school, supplemented by mobile carts bearing laptops and netbooks. By year's end, officials plan to introduce BYOD -- bring your own device -- which will allow students and teachers to voluntarily use their personal laptops, tablets and even smartphones in the classroom.

"We have a pretty good student-to-computer ratio, but it's not enough to just visit the computer lab once a week so we want to up the (number) of devices to students," said Assistant Superintendent Arturo Ortega. "We believe we can never have too much technology."

Education experts see technology -- not only computers, but infrastructure -- as a significant challenge in implementing Common Core, especially in the wake of the five-year recession that forced devastating cuts in education funding.

"We're not as strong as I'd like us to be," West Covina Unified Superintendent Debra Kaplan said. "There's the issue of computers, but the bigger question is whether we have the bandwidth to support what we need."

Officials in the 14,500-student district are proceeding cautiously, assessing their technology and debating whether they want to spend their badly needed state money on computers or on professional development for teachers.

"I don't want to just throw money at a problem," Kaplan said. "We really have to prioritize."

Minimum requirements for technology have been developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which is crafting the tests that will be used by California and 23 other states to gauge students' mastery of Common Core standards. Through computer-adaptive tests, a student who answers a question correctly will then receive a more challenging problem, while an incorrect answer will generate an easier question.

(The 22 other states that have adopted Common Core belong to the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.)

Districts that lack the technology to support online tests during the first rounds of Common Core will be able to use paper-and-pencil versions instead. Schools with computer labs or mobile laptop carts will be given a 12-week window for students to complete the tests.

But Los Angeles Unified wants its students to have computer access 24/7 -- not only for tests, but for classroom lessons, group projects and homework. Officials don't see the tablets as glorified test booklets, but as basic and necessary tools that will prepare youngsters for college and jobs.

Last month, the school board approved spending $30 million to buy iPads for roughly 30,000 students at 47 schools, the first phase of its one-to-one technology plan. District officials have said they want all students working on the same device, so Apple is widely expected to get the future contracts unless there are major problems with the iPads.

LAUSD is paying $678 per tablet, a higher price than in many stores, but that includes preloaded software from Pearson Education Inc. A panel of district educators, students and technology experts tested Common Core-related packages from several educational publishers and New Jersey-based Pearson came out on top, officials said.

Other districts are using existing textbooks and open-source software to develop their Common Core lessons.

"Digital and interactive is the wave of the future -- and the present -- and we decided to integrate that into the technology platform," said Deputy Superintendent Jaime Aquino, who is leading LAUSD's Common Core effort.

Before joining LAUSD, Aquino worked for America's Choice, an education research company acquired by Pearson in 2010. Aquino said he was not part of the panel that rated all of the software options, but was part of the team that reviewed the three finalists for the contract -- all of which had Pearson as the software provider.

The Apple contract also includes money for training, and teachers at the 47 LAUSD schools will begin their sessions in early August.